Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

I have read the plethora of complaints and rebuttals regarding Kaplan University. Mine is much different in nature; it is not related to any sort of financial matters. My complaint is of the quality of the education I am receiving.

My concerns began when I was having trouble with quizzes in a particular class. I attempted to contact the professor with emails requesting further review of the quiz results or extra help. His responses were curt and evasive. I compiled each specific quiz question/answer asking where in the text or discussion we had been taught the material into a word document and attached it to a third email. He admitted that he was not responsible for designing the quizzes and that the material in question was nowhere to be found in our course study except on the quizzes. Here I am, miserably failing these quizzes, but I earned full credit for EVERY other assignment. As I took the final, I Googled one of the exam questions, and I was surprised by the search results. I found the exact quiz questions from throughout the term and the final copied from exams given by various other educational institutions on their web sites. I am upset because I feel that at $1500 a course either the professor or at least the department could design their own curriculum with exams that align with the material we are studying. They prohibit plagiarism by students, but is this not a form of plagiarism itself? It may be common practice, but it is not ethical.

Upon further research, I discover that most professors are actually moonlighting professionals. Whether they are professors at other colleges and are just picking up extra money, I don't know. My basic sentiment is that, generally, professors do not care or do not have the time to actually challenge the students and/or thoroughly review material. I have not felt this way in all my courses. I do not feel it is fair to say across the board that all classes are not challenging or are not led by caring professors, but I feel that professors in an online environment may be more inclined to be lackadaisical.

Kaplan is a for-profit institution and has become a cash cow for the Washington Post who own Kaplan. I have been warned that to complain may stir up a hornet's nest because of this fact. I am sure that Kaplan and the Washington Post retain expensive lawyers, and I have been told that they even have a credit agency under their umbrella. Most students that enroll in online universities are low to middle class adults who are determined to better their life. Society has impressed upon us that college degrees are somewhat of a golden ticket. What has embittered me is the fact that a bachelor's degree costs somewhere in the ballpark of $50,000. I read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Dan Carnevale that claims Kaplan enrolls 50,000+ students. I also read that 43% are seeking bachelor's degrees. If this true, 21,500 Kaplan students are striving for bachelor's degrees. If these 21,500 attain their degrees, and, once again, if my facts are valid, this would mean $1,075,000,000 in revenues just for bachelor degree seekers. There student enrollments is increasing and so did their per credit fee. Last term, I was notified that credit hours fees would be raised from $305 to $315, which is already increased from a year ago. So where does this money go? Should not most of it be put into the education process? I have a hunch, it mostly lines the pockets of Washington Post CEO's. I am sickened by the unethical nature of these practices. I enrolled in classes because I was interested in learning, but at what cost? The fact is that information taught in school is available to anyone for free if they seek it out. It's the degree that we are ultimately paying for because we have been convinced as a society that it is a measure of our capabilities and intelligence.

Furthermore, I feel that the acceptance of enrolling students is a very lax process. I find that more than a few students in my discussion boards are not at college level learning, and in a couple of instances an English literacy class may have been better suited the students. I do not mean this to be condescending, but colleges are meant to be a place of higher learning. Lowering the standards in any arena of education will only cheat all students in the end, and has degraded the value a college degree, in my opinion.

I am aware that I may incite adversaries in those people who have enjoyed a successful experience as well as I will gain acceptance from those people who have been wronged. My goal in voicing these thoughts are to promote what is right and ethical. I have no reverence to power or money, only to that which I feel is just.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

AUTHOR: A Friend - (U.S.A.)

I was a financial aid officer for Kaplan University. You can see my full report here:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/285/RipOff0285744.htm

Kaplan University aggressively wants to make money. They use deceptive sales tactics and marketing to recruit students. The true cost per credit hour is hidden using high credit hour degrees like the 180 credit hour bachelors. A typical bachelors degree is 120 credit hours. They hide negative web based information on their company with multiple web sites. If you do a google search on Kaplan, you will see many different versions of Kaplan.com. This fills a web search with their information and blocks any semi independent sources. An educator should look out for the needs of their students not manipulate information to obtain the highest profits.

Check out on line programs offered at your state university before entering Kaplan. Don't combine the cost of tuition with living expenses in your analysis.

Kaplan enrolment dates start every six weeks. Ignore the telemarketer; You don't have to start right away.

AUTHOR: Ash - (U.S.A.)

SUBMITTED: Friday, January 04, 2008

POSTED: Friday, January 04, 2008

I was going here because my friends said this was a great school. I called the school to enroll, they seemed nice at first and told me lies about how much everything would cost. After 2 courses I recieved my bill. I had to pay out on top of a 12,000 loan and grant already disbursed to them. Why was it so expensive I have no clue. I could never get help on assignments from the teachers. Half the time they didnt show up for seminars and if they did it was for maybe 15 min and then told us we could go.

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! One teacher was failing me in math and I was pulling the answers directly out the book and she said I was wrong. Well so was the book they gave me. I finally dropped my last set of classes and transferred to another school who is a lot cheaper and helpful. Even though they sent me my last certificate for Deans List Honors in my april term I still have yet to see my second term sent to me and they took away the credits too. They even told me to not pay the .49 cents I owe because it was a joke of a bill but they still sent me to collections.

What a crock. This school is worthless, they lie, overcharge for a dumbfounded education and really your paying them to send you a bill later. I should have never wasted my time there and my money down the drain. When I told them I was going to transfer my academic advisor hung up on me and before doing so told me I wasnt worth the waste of breathe to talk me to stay. Yeah GREAT SCHOOL.

AUTHOR: X Admission Advisor - (U.S.A.)

SUBMITTED: Sunday, October 21, 2007

POSTED: Sunday, October 21, 2007

I just wanted to say you are correct in regards to the money. I was an admission advisor at Kaplan University. Every advisor is hired in at $30,000 and then in 3.5 months they get the 1st evaluation which is based on how many enrollments they were able to pull in. This will determine if they get a raise or remain at $30,000. The 2nd evaluation is 6 months later where at that time the advisor will either get another raise, or be lowered depending on the amount of enrollments. And every 6 months there after is another evaluation if the advisor can last that long. If the advisor cannot meet their goal in 3 cycles they are let go/fired.

Now at my 3.5 month period I went up to $50,0000 and the next 6 months up to $60,000. and made the presidents club which is a free trip every year for the few who make it. They took us to Dominican Republic and you can take one guest free. All expenses are paid for including all the alcohol you can drink. This company highly supports alcohol and they have many outings for the employees which provides free alcohol and food. Many leave drunk! Now at the next 6 month period I was dropped down to $42,000. due to not meeting my goal, 7 enrollments per cycle. If you meet the goal you get a flag to hang at your cubicle that says I made goal and everyone is clapping for you. Big deal, you worked your butt off and were so stressed till you didn't know whichend was up and there was no appreciation, just tell you dial the phone, you need to make at least 150 dials a day to get your enrollments and make the kind of money you want.

Imagine you are making $60,000 for 6 months and then u drop $18,000 less. This is a huge adjustment to your standard of living and quiet difficult but this is how they make you work hard and make people enroll to give you the incentive to make the money you need to live.

Kaplan University is nothing more then a big broiler room with a lot of uneducated people working there. I happen to be one of the few with a Bachelor Degree yet I was not able to get promoted in the company. The ones who are promoted are the smooth talkers who get 12 or more enrollments every cycle and most are not management material. Now as for pay, Associate Directors make $50,000. a year and no overtime, straight salary, Directors of Admission, $70,000. Excutive Director of Admission $120,000.

I guess the moral of my story is the majority of the people who work there do not have ethics or morals and will tell you any thing you need to hear so they can hit their goal, thus make the big bucks. It is like commission but they can't call it commision because it is against the law in order to receive federal funding, Titile IV! So they use evaluations rather than commissions.

It is a very hard place to work for, many night I wne home crying because of the way they treat you there. Always on your back to dial the phone and get enrollments. I quit because I just could not take it anymore and now I am suffering without a job and staying with my mother. What a nightmare!

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.